Factor analysis of the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form in children with autism spectrum disorders.
The NCBRF gives reliable social-competence and problem-behavior scores for kids with ASD.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Luc and colleagues ran a factor analysis on the Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form (NCBRF).
They looked at the kids with autism who were already in treatment centers.
Parents and teachers filled out the same form so the team could check if the questions group into clear scales.
What they found
The math showed two solid scales: social competence and problem behavior.
Both scales held together well across parent and teacher reports.
In plain words, the NCBRF measures what it claims to measure in youth with ASD.
How this fits with other research
Nijs et al. (2016) later did the same kind of factor work on the new CAPES-DD form.
Both studies found tight factor structures, giving you two free parent tools that are psychometrically sound.
Reznick et al. (2007) and Shire et al. (2019) built the First Year Inventory for babies.
Those infant papers and this child paper form a timeline: screen early with FYI, then track progress with NCBRF.
Eliasziw et al. (2025) is trying to shorten the SRS to just five items.
That effort keeps the same goal as Lecavalier et al. (2004): faster, valid autism screening, just in fewer questions.
Why it matters
You can pull the NCBRF off the shelf and trust the scores for IEP baselines or treatment graphs.
It is free, parent- and teacher-friendly, and now backed by factor data.
Pair it with FYI results if you want a picture that spans from toddlerhood to school age.
Want CEUs on This Topic?
The ABA Clubhouse has 60+ free CEUs — live every Wednesday. Ethics, supervision & clinical topics.
Join Free →Add the NCBRF parent form to your intake packet and graph the two factor scores as your baseline.
02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Nisonger Child Behavior Rating Form (NCBRF) is a behavior rating scale designed for children and adolescents with mental retardation. The purpose of this study was to explore the psychometric properties of the NCBRF in a sample of 330 children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). Parent and teacher ratings were independently submitted to both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. As reported with the original validation study, parent and teacher versions shared similar but somewhat different factor structures. Social competence items showed more similarity with the original solutions than did problem behavior items. Problem behavior items were distributed into a somewhat simpler five-factor solution for both rating forms. Self-injurious and stereotypic items loaded on two distinct subscales for the teacher form, but not on the parent form. Factor loadings and internal consistencies were generally lower than those reported for the original versions but still within the acceptable range. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated good fits for the social competence items and acceptable fits for the problem behavior items. Overall, results supported the construct validity of the NCBRF in children and adolescents with ASDs.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2004 · doi:10.1007/s10803-004-5291-1